LOWELL -- In the pages of their Lowell High School yearbooks, they share memories of carefree days and hopeful plans for tomorrow. She recalls making new friends and "chillin' out." He writes of snowboarding, skateboarding and partying. She hopes to attend college and travel. He looks forward to college and "turning 21."

Today, Shana Pedroso and Marvin Brito are behind bars, held without bail, facing charges of allegedly harming their young children.

They were arrested Tuesday afternoon after police found their 6-year-old daughter, Sofia, unresponsive and their 9-year-old son, Julian, injured in their home at 139 Stoneybrook Road in Fitchburg. Sofia was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Julian's injuries are not considered life-threatening.

Pedroso, 37, and Brito, 38, are both charged with two counts of reckless endangerment of a child. Pedroso also faces two counts of assault and battery of a child with injury and Brito faces two counts of permitting substantial injury to a child. They were ordered held without bail in Fitchburg District Court Wednesday as they await a dangerousness hearing April 18.

On Tuesday Brito called police at 11:58 a.m. while driving home after learning his 6-year-old daughter was not breathing, he told a dispatcher, according to police call records obtained from the Office of the Worcester County District Attorney.

During the call he said his daughter was at home with her 9-year-old brother and Pedroso.

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Sofia died only a few days before her seventh birthday, according a 2011 birth announcement in The Sun indicating she was born at Lowell General Hospital April 14 that year. An announcement of Julian's birth also ran in 2008.

Neighbors in both cities reported the family to be reclusive, rarely seeing the children outdoors.

Brito graduated Lowell High School in 1997, and Pedroso in 1998. According to their yearbooks, both were involved in the International Language Club.

Shana Pedroso and Marvin Brito bought this house at 5 Fulton Ave. in Lowell in 2004. They lived there until at least November 2015, when they purchased their home in Fitchburg, according to records at the Worcester Northern District Registry of Deeds. SUN / ALANA MELANSON

According to records at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds, Brito and Pedroso were living at an Appleton Street apartment when they bought a house at 5 Fulton Ave. in 2004. They lived there until at least November 2015, when they purchased their home in Fitchburg, according to records at the Worcester Northern District Registry of Deeds.

A Fulton Avenue neighbor said Thursday she had lived in the neighborhood 10 years and never met Brito or Pedroso.

Another neighbor, who declined to provide his name, said he remembered them and their children. He said his family was upset to learn of the girl's death.

"It's very sad," he said.

He said his children occasionally played with Sofia and Julian, but they were rarely seen outside the home.

Shana Pedroso, at left with her attorney, Michael Hussey.
SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE PHOTOS / JOHN LO

There are many children in the neighborhood that would all run around and play outside together in the warm weather, but not the Brito kids, the neighbor said.

The man described Brito and Pedroso as mostly keeping to themselves, but Brito was slightly more sociable, he said. The neighbor said he often heard them screaming at one another inside the home.

He said he was not sure where the kids were educated, because they did not attend the same school as his children. He said he believed they had moved out in just the past year or so, and were renting the home to friends of Brito, because he would occasionally visit and spend time with the tenants.

Julian was briefly enrolled in the Lowell Public School system in 2012, The Sun has learned.

On Aug. 14 of that year, he was enrolled in a preschool program that was scheduled to begin on Sept. 4. He was withdrawn from the program on Sept. 6.

It's unclear when Pedroso and Brito moved into their Fitchburg home.

The brown, three bedroom is set back from the street, one of just shy of a hundred residences in a development of single family homes off of Rindge Road. On Thursday, a pickup truck and minivan -- the latter with stickers on the rear window depicting a four-person family -- still sat in the driveway. A playset with swings and a slide occupied the sloping backyard.

Neighbors say the family kept to themselves. Laura and Joseph LePage, who live across the street, said while the previous owner's children often played in the home's front yard, they rarely saw their new neighbors and never saw the two children.

"I say if you saw something you might say something, but we couldn't see anything," Joseph LePage said.

The evening of Feb. 2, the Fitchburg police and fire departments responded to the Stoneybrook home for a report of a fire in the home's basement, according to records from the Office of the Worcester County District Attorney.

Deputy Chief Thomas Dateo said the homeowner told firefighters a candle near a television stand in the basement caught clothes on fire. The homeowner extinguished the small fire before first responders arrived, according to Dateo.

Records of the family's participation in Fitchburg life are limited. According to Fitchburg Schools Superintendent Andre Ravenelle, the family submitted a homeschool application for their two children in fall 2017, their first record of any interaction with the district.

Home-schooled children can participate in extracurricular activities and special education services offered by the district, but Ravenelle said the family did not request to join either.

Jacqueline Reis, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said homeschooled students are not required to see a doctor or participate in state testing. She said under state law, no one from the state or district is required to visit the family.

Home-school applications are handled on a local level and the list of required materials depends on the district, according to Reis.

In an email, Ravenelle said Fitchburg Public Schools adheres to state law when considering applications and provided links to general Massachusetts requirements.

According to Lowell District Court records, Brito has a history of charges going back to 1997, the year he graduated from Lowell High.

On July 18 that year, Brito, then of 30 Ash St., Lowell, was accused of assault and battery and disorderly conduct in a Lowell incident. He was released on personal recognizance, and ordered not to abuse the victim. The case was dismissed due to failure to prosecute on Feb. 17, 1998.

Brito, living at the same address, was then accused of assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon as a result of an incident in Lowell on Jan. 14. 1999. He was again released on personal recognizance, and ordered not to abuse the victim. The case was dismissed due to failure to prosecute on July 13 that year.

On Oct. 2 that year, Brito was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor in Billerica. On April 26, 2000, he admitted to sufficient facts for a guilty finding. The case was continued without a finding for one year and dismissed on the recommendation of the probation department.

The address Brito lived at during these cases, 30 Ash St., is owned by Mark Brito, according to city assessor and registry records.

A woman who answered the door at 30 Ash St. Thursday afternoon declined to speak with a reporter and immediately shut the door. Neighbors The Sun spoke with said they were not familiar with the family.

There was no answer at the 184-186 Highland Ave. home owned by Shana Pedroso's parents, Helena and Renaldo Pedroso, when reporters visited in the early afternoon and evening Thursday.

A resident of the street said he was familiar with the Pedrosos but declined to comment further.

Sun staff writer Robert Mills contributed to this report.

Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alana.lowellsun or on Twitter @alanamelanson.

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